Immigration Battle Divides Arizona GOP

[proud2BlibKansan]

By Joel Achenbach
The Washington Post

Saturday 02 February 2008

Many activists despise McCain.

Phoenix - The protesters gather every morning before dawn, monitoring the entrance to a fenced compound called the Macehualli Work Center. They are trying to shut the place down. They wave placards and take photos of anyone driving in to pick up the day laborers who congregate there. They want nothing less than to save America from what they call "the invasion."

"Most of us don't feel safe on the Phoenix streets without being armed," says Wes Pecsok, a contractor who keeps his pistol in an inner vest pocket. "We're not going to be intimidated by these thugs. "

The protesters are members of the Minutemen, Riders USA, United for a Sovereign America. They find a common bond in their rage, their fury at the government, their loathing of Hispanics who have come to the United States illegally. They say that many immigrants carry disease, and kill cops, and rape children.

"We're the Wild West," protester Craig Tillman says with a smile.

The Wild West is actually a rather ordinary-looking, heavily commercialized artery called Bell Road. Mexico is a three-hour drive south of here, but Bell Road and places like it are where the worlds collide, one culture grinding against the other. And in the home state of Sen. John McCain, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, that clash has driven a wedge straight through the Arizona GOP.

The party is controlled at the district level by activists who detest McCain for his sponsorship, with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), of a comprehensive immigration bill that among other things would have provided illegal immigrants with a pathway to citizenship. They think McCain is a traitor to conservative causes and an advocate for amnesty for illegal immigrants.

"We do not consider him a conservative at all," says Rob Haney, a Republican Party chairman in McCain's home district. The candidate's bus, the Straight Talk Express, should be renamed, Haney says: "We call it the Forked Tongue Express around here. He'll lie about anything."

more . . . http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020208A.shtml

[muntrv]

1. Memo to anti-Mexican protesters: Arizona was a part of Mexico. When it

became a US territory, there already were about 20,000 Mexicans living there.

[DesertFlower]

2. good point.nt

[bluestateguy]

3. I think we need to encourage these people

And help them teach the Republican Party a lesson by encouarging them to stay home in November.

[apocalypsehow]

4. a scary vigilante group

I hope the FBI is monitoring this group.

[jody]

5. Polls show about 66% of U.S. citizens want illegal immigrants sent back home although most are not

so strident as the "Minutemen, Riders USA".

For many voters, illegal immigrants are an important issue and we Democrats can be thankful that McCain's alliance with Kennedy touting amnesty and McCain's almost certain selection as the Republican candidate can work to our advantage.

The optimum result would be that those who believe illegal immigrations is an important issue will refuse to vote for McCain simply because of his link to Kennedy on this one issue.

In that case, the Dem candidate can effectively double the amount of non-voters because IMO most of them would vote for McCain, i.e. I hope most Dem voters who oppose amnesty for illegal aliens would still vote for the Dem candidate.

That means if 1% don't vote because of McCain's position on illegal aliens, without a corresponding 1% offset of prospective voters who would vote Dem but actually not voting, then it results in a 1% net gain for the Dem candidate on this one issue.